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  • February 19, 2009 |

    Nabarro strikes up LPC deal with Kaplan

    Nabarro has signed an exclusive agreement to send all of its trainees taking the Legal Practice Course (LPC) to Kaplan Law School from autumn 2009. The City firm is the third firm to sign up to Kaplan exclusively, after similar deals were struck up by Bird & Bird in October 2008 and Mayer Brown in November 2006.The education provider teaches Nottingham Law School's LPC, which was last year awarded top marks by the Law Society in all assessment categories.

    1 minute read

  • February 16, 2009 |

    Is there a home for magic circle partners shown the door?

    After the cut comes the job hunt. There was a time when the partners due to be shown the exit from the likes of Ashurst, Clifford Chance and Linklaters would have gravitated naturally to one of the legions of US firms looking to aggressively grow their business in London. In the current climate, such moves look far less assured. If they're not seeing them already, recruiters soon will notice partner CVs fluttering around the City like confetti. Despite the economic conditions, there are still a number of US firms eager to grow their London outposts, although there are far more caveats now.

    1 minute read

  • February 13, 2009 |

    Northern Rock compensation claim dismissed

    The Northern Rock shareholders dispute has been dismissed by the courts, it was announced today (13 February) and is now heading for appeal. Lord Justice Stanley Burton and Mr Justice Silber's judgment means more than 150,000 private shareholders have failed in their attempts to secure improved compensation following the nationalisation of the crisis-hit lender.The ruling followed a three-and-a-half day trial held last month at a specially convened Divisional Court at the Royal Courts of Justice. The shareholders did not challenge the bank's nationalisation, but were claiming that the statutory criteria established for the valuation process breached the European Convention on Human Rights.

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  • February 12, 2009 |

    Linklaters chief rejects calls to cut legal fees

    Linklaters senior partner David Cheyne has rejected calls for top law firms to cut rates in response to the downturn.Speaking at a roundtable hosted by consultants Graham Gill, and attended by senior names including Slaughter and May partner Nigel Boardman, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer corporate head Mark Rawlinson, and ITV group legal director and general counsel Andrew Garard, Cheyne caused controversy with his claims that clients would not respect firms for slashing rates. Cheyne said: "Clients are not foolish themselves - they get wind of what's going on, but they do not necessarily respect a law firm that comes round and says we will do the work that your existing law firm will do, but for a third less, because they might have doubts as to whether a firm is really able to deliver quality at a suicide rate."

    1 minute read

  • February 12, 2009 |

    Two-thirds of City partners support associate pay freeze, research says

    Two-thirds of City partners are in favour of freezing associate pay in a bid to save money and stave off further redundancies, as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer emerged this week as the first UK firm to break assistant lockstep. Research by Legal Week over the past week for the Big Question survey found that most partners were in favour of a full salary freeze despite it requiring a temporary suspension of the traditional lockstep model that has seen associates progress annually through a firm's pay bands.The findings come as Freshfields this week revealed that it would be freezing associate pay at 2008 levels.

    1 minute read

  • February 12, 2009 |

    CC, Links lead on Chinalco's $19.5bn Rio Tinto investment

    Clifford Chance and Linklaters have taken lead roles as the Aluminium Corporation of China (Chinalco) seals a $19.5bn (£13.7bn) strategic partnership with mining giant Rio Tinto. The move represents the largest outbound investment ever put forward by a Chinese company and will see Chinalco increase its stake in Rio Tinto from 9% up to 18%.Chinalco was advised by CC with a team headed up by corporate partners Kathy Honeywood and Nigel Wellings in London and Rupert Li in Beijing.Antitrust support was provided by global head Simon Baxter in Brussels and London-based partner Greg Olsen, along with corporate partner Simon Cooke, tax partner Douglas French and Hong Kong-based energy partner Geraint Hughes.

    1 minute read

  • February 11, 2009 |

    DLA, Shepherds take lead on £320m Scottish road deal

    DLA Piper and Shepherd and Wedderburn have secured lead roles on one of the first major private finance initiative (PFI) deals to be closed under the Scottish National Party administration - a £320m road development in Scotland. DLA Piper advised on the project to upgrade an 18km stretch of motorway linking North Lanarkshire and Falkirk.

    1 minute read

  • February 11, 2009 |

    The art of flexibility

    After years of law firms bragging about career breaks and flexible working opportunities, you would be forgiven for thinking that juggling a career in law with having children must be the easiest thing in the world.But even in this age of the BlackBerry and the trusty laptop, many women in the profession maintain that having children presents a choice: focus on being a mother or on being a career woman because you cannot do both.For those who go down the route of motherhood, two things can make all the difference: flexible childcare and a flexible partner. Slaughter and May's head of corporate, Frances Murphy, is no exception - she has a live-in nanny and a flexible husband. And she is far from alone in asserting that without these, working life would be extraordinarily difficult to manage. Even with nursery care, the idea of being able to leave the office at 5.30pm - even if the firm allows it - is simply not a realistic option for most senior lawyers.

    1 minute read

  • February 11, 2009 |

    Graduate law jobs to defy downturn with 2009 rise

    The number of graduate positions in the legal profession is set to increase during 2009, despite a widespread drop-off in opportunities across a host of other industries, new research has revealed. According to the Graduate Recruitment Survey 2009 Winter Review, compiled by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), the number of graduate positions in the legal sector is likely to rise by 2%.The projected increase is in contrast to a number of other industries that are likely to see a decline in opportunities in the coming 12 months. The banking and financial services sector is predicted to see a decrease in graduate jobs of 10.7%, while investment banking and fund managers are set to be the hardest hit with a drop of 28%. Across the board, vacancies are expected to decline by 5.4%.

    1 minute read

  • February 5, 2009 |

    BUPA adds Travers and Mills & Reeve to new M&A panel

    BUPA is poised to complete a review of its M&A advisers with Travers Smith and Mills & Reeve set to win new instructions from the healthcare company.BUPA, which started reviewing its advisers across most of its main practice areas including litigation and NHS procurement last February, is still to finalise the M&A panel; however, Travers and Wragge & Co have already been selected to handle work valued between £30m and £250m. The organisation has also chosen Ansons, Pitmans and Mills & Reeve to handle work valued at less than £10m. It is still looking to select a third adviser for deals valued between £30m-£250m as well as advisory firms for high-end work in excess of £250m, for which it currently uses Slaughter and May.

    1 minute read